The Lighthorsemen (1987)

Directed by

Simon Wincer

Genre

drama film, action film, war film, historical film

Country

Australia

Runtime

2h 11m

Rated

PG-13

Rating

6.1 of 10 from 39 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Australian light horsemen fight in the Sinai and Palestine campaign of World War One. The film focuses on their experiences leading up to the 1917 Battle of Beersheba.

historicalsweepingpatrioticsomberaction-packedtrue-storysentimentalgritty

What happens

The Lighthorsemen is a 1987 Australian war film about the men of a World War I light horse unit involved in Sinai and Palestine campaign's 1917 Battle of Beersheba. The film is based on a true story and most of the characters in the film were based on real people. (Elyne Mitchell wrote the novelisation based on the screenplay.) It follows in the wake of other Australian New Wave war films such as Breaker Morant (1980), Gallipoli (1981), and the 5-part TV series Anzacs (1985). Recurring themes of these films include the Australian identity, such as mateship and larrikinism, the loss of innocence in war, and also the continued coming of age of the Australian nation and its soldiers (the Anzac spirit). The film was directed by Simon Wincer, and several pieces of footage from the climactic scenes were re-used in the episode "Palestine, October 1917" of the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. This episode, which aired in 1993, likewise focuses on the Battle of Beersheeba, and was also directed by Wincer. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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